The present invention is an improved method and apparatus for awarding a progressive prize on a casino table game. There are a number of casino table games that are based on the rules of poker, such as pai gow, as well as proprietary games such as 3 Hand Hold 'Em™, Three Card Poker™, Crazy For Poker™, Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em™ and others. Each of these games is typically played with one standard deck of playing cards. Other popular casino table games, such as blackjack, may be played with one or more decks of cards.
The basic object of most casino table games is for the player and house (represented by a dealer) to each make a hand. If the house's hand is better than the player's hand, evaluated using a predetermined set of rules, the player typically loses his wager. If the player's hand is better than the house's, the player typically is awarded a prize equal to his wager. In order for the game to be profitable for the casino, the rules have to provide the house with an edge over the player.
In some games, the house's edge in the game is large enough that the player may be awarded a multiple of his wager in certain situations. Players enjoy receiving multiplied returns on their wagers. The house's edge is rarely great enough to support a multiplier of greater than three however, and almost never greater than ten. As the house's edge is increased, the players win much less often and view the game as unfairly weighted to the house's advantage and the game becomes less enjoyable for players. Thus, to provide enjoyable table games, casinos must balance the player's desire to receive a multiplied prize against the player's desire to play a game where the house's edge is perceived as small.
One of the ways casinos achieve the desired balance is to award multipliers based on the probability of the hand made by the players or the house or a combination thereof. These hands can have sufficiently rare probabilities that attractive multipliers can be awarded to the player. For instance, in a five-card stud poker game, the highest and rarest hand that can be achieved using a standard fifty-two card deck and traditional poker hand rankings is a royal flush (ace, king, queen, jack and ten, all of the same suit). The probability of that hand occurring is 325,635 to 1. A casino could conceivably pay a player a multiplier of 300,000× on a wager when they achieve a royal flush and still maintain an edge.
The multiplier may be paid based on the player's primary wager (typically the wager the player makes that their hand will be better than the house's) or it may be paid on a separate side wager. The advantage of using a side wager is that higher multipliers may be paid while maintaining the house's edge. For instance, if a five-card stud table game pays even money on a primary wager and the player wins 48% of the time, the house's edge would be 4% (i.e., 1−(2×0.48)=0.04). It will be understood by those skilled in the art that if the house's edge is 4%, the return to the player is the remainder from 100%, or 96%. Any additional multiplier payout made on the primary wager would reduce the house's edge further. So if a multiplier were to be paid for a player receiving a royal flush, and only a royal flush, it would be limited to approximately 13,025 to 1 (i.e., 4% of 325,635). As additional hands other than a royal flush are included in the group of hands that award multipliers, the maximum multiplier would be reduced even further. By awarding multipliers on a side wager versus a primary wager, the house is no longer constrained by the 4% edge associated with the primary wager.
With sufficiently rare hands, the casino can also award a player a progressive prize. A progressive prize is generally understood to be a large prize (typically the largest prize available at a given game) with an amount that is increased over time. This is typically done by taking a small portion of each wager made and adding it to the progressive amount. Other progressive prizes may increment solely on the amount of time it takes for a player to win it. Still further, progressive prizes have been suggested that decrease over time or that reset to a minimum value once a maximum value is reached. Typically the progressive prize could only be won by a player at a table game by achieving the rarest hand possible (e.g., a royal flush in five-card stud). To further increase the odds, some casinos have specified additional restraints, such as suit (e.g., a royal flush in spades in the five-card stud game). In such instances, lesser or more commonly occurring hands (e.g., a royal flush in any of the other three suits) may be awarded a small percentage, perhaps 10%, of the progressive. By requiring a rarer hand to win the progressive prize, casinos ensure that the progressive prize will grow for a longer period of time. Players typically are attracted to games with larger progressive prizes. However, it is believed that players also become frustrated if the progressive prize is too difficult to achieve. Therefore, once again casinos are left to find the best balance for a game that is profitable to the casino and enjoyable to the player.
Two related inventions that attempt to allow casinos and game designers to more easily achieve this balance is Johnson, U.S. Pat. No. 7,931,532 and Place, U.S. Pat. No. 5,707,285 issued to Paltronics and incorporated herein by reference. These references generally teach allowing table game player to play a bonus game driven by a computer generated random number (or random number generator or RNG) whenever the player achieves a specific qualifying event (e.g., a black jack in a twenty-one game). The bonus game disclosed is a physical wheel which is spun to indicate one of a variety of payouts, one of which includes the progressive prize.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that by adding the intermediate bonus game, these references necessarily decrease the probability of the player winning the progressive. Indeed, this is the stated intent of Place. For instance, if in the hypothetical five-card stud game previously discussed, the player gets to play the bonus game disclosed in Johnson and Place upon achieving a royal flush, and the bonus game awards the progressive once every hundred tries, then the odds of winning the progressive are 325,635 (the odds of a royal flush) times 100 (the odds of winning the progressive in the bonus game) or 32,563,500 to 1.